The medieval illuminated manuscript known as the Aberdeen Bestiary is one of the most lavish of its kind. Heavily encrusted in gold leaf and filled with paintings of beasts that illustrate lengthy ...

While dragons and unicorns have long topped the A-list of mythical animals, medieval bestiaries are filled with an assortment of bizarre creatures that are scarcely remembered today. Ever heard of a ...

St. Anthony and tormenting demons, Yates Thompson 49, f.34v (courtesy The British Library Board) Beyond the borders of maps, where the limits of exploration fell to imagination, medieval artists and ...

Unicorns may be magical, majestic, beautiful, etc., but they have a serious weakness: virgin women. Indeed, ancient lore says that using a maiden as bait is the only way to snag yourself one of these ...

The lion, king of the beasts, gives birth to dead pups. After three days, during which the young are licked into shape, the father breathes life into his offspring with a terrifying roar. Or so we're ...

It was long believed that the Aberdeen Bestiary was published exclusively for the wealthy elite. Details revealed by a high-definition digitization suggest it had a humbler origin. The bestiary was ...

For the makers of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, it wasn't enough to lavish attention on the text itself. There was a whole decorative world to add, of things both divine and mundane, ...

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Humanity's struggle against monstrous creatures has been a perennial favourite of storytellers for thousands of years. We see it in Gilgamesh's battle against Humbaba, Beowulf's doomed struggle ...